Peter Noone

Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone (born 5 November 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and teen idol. He was the lead singer "Herman" in the 1960s pop group Herman's Hermits and continues to tour as the lead singer for Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone.

Noone was born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, England, the second of five children, the son of two accountants, and attended English Martyrs (Urmston), Wellacre Primary School (Flixton), Stretford Grammar School, and St Bede's College, Manchester. In an interview, Noone made this comment about his early years: "My parents had zero input in my career other than to teach me to be independent and to always be honest, steadfast and true and I was steadfast often. I was able to have a perfectly normal teen life …"

Noone studied voice and drama at St Bede's College and at the Manchester School of Music, where he won the Outstanding Young Musician Award.

Early in his career, he used the stage name Peter Novac. At 15, he became the lead singer, spokesman and frontman of Herman's Hermits, who were discovered by Harvey Lisberg. As "Herman", Noone appeared on the cover of many international publications, including Time Magazine's 1965 collage showing new faces in popular music. The Hermits consisted of Noone, Derek "Lek" Leckenby and Keith Hopwood (guitars), Karl Green (bass) and Barry Whitwam (drums).

The band's hits included: "I'm into Something Good", "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", "Silhouettes", "Wonderful World", "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" (in the US), "There's a Kind of Hush", "Just a Little Bit Better", "A Must to Avoid", "Listen People", "The End of the World", "Dandy", and "No Milk Today". Herman's Hermits sold more than 60 million records and had 14 gold singles and seven gold albums. The Hermits were twice named in the US trade paper Cashbox as "Entertainer of the Year".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.